Few dramatic works have experienced such a history of success as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s (1756-1791) last opera “Die Zauberflöte”. Even the première in the Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna on 30 September 1791 was a triumph. Crucial to its success, however, in addition to Mozart’s music, was the theatrical sensibility of his librettist Emanuel Schikaneder. “Die Zauberflöte” tells, in the style of an ancient romantic novel, of the voyage of discovery of a young couple, who overcome all trials and dangers and finally come together. The opera is simultaneously a comedy, a morality play, a fairy tale and an allegory.

Mozart researcher Alfred Einstein wrote: “Die Zauberflöte is among the pieces which is equally able to delight a child, move the most experienced person to tears and edify the wise. Every individual and every generation finds in it something different.”

The message that there is no black and white, but rather that only by acknowledging and then overcoming ones own dark side is it possible to achieve a life worth living, is at the centre of “Die Zauberflöte”. The Queen of the Night and Sarastro are two sides of the same coin and the hope for the new generation, and of overcoming this old dichotomy, lies with Pamina and Tamino.

The young director Philipp Westerbarkei directed his first productions at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where teamed up with stage and costume designer Tatjana Ivschina to present works including Bernstein’s “Trouble in Tahiti” and Knussen’s “Wo die wilden Kerle wohnen” with great success. In the 2018/2019 season he will also direct a new production of Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” there.

Conductor

Johannes Braun

Chorusmaster

Mikko Sidoroff

Director

Philipp Westerbarkei

Designer

Tatjana Ivschina

Queen of the Night

Dimitra Kotidou

Sarastro

Bartosz Araszkiewicz

Pamina

Laura Incko

Tamino

Peter Aisher

Papagena

Francesca Paratore

Papageno

Marvin Zobel

Monostatos

Dirk Mestmacher

Three Ladies

Olga Shurshina / Rannveig Káradóttir, Emily Lorini, Kora Pavelic

Three Boys

Kinderchor

Speaker

Michael Lion

and others

Philharmonic Orchestra of Coburg State Theatre
Chorus of Coburg State Theatre